According to local rules. Will the Chinese cut down “the entire Siberian forest”? "China is taking Siberia"

“One of the main Russian fears of the Chinese is that they want to cut down our entire Siberian forest. In the last few months, almost everyone has written about this - from activist bloggers to the largest tabloids. This topic is already being discussed in a raised voice on the Internet This is not the first year that residents of the Irkutsk region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory of Russia have been writing petitions of many thousands against the “capture” of the Siberian taiga by the Chinese.”

This is written by the coordinator of the program "Russia in the Asia-Pacific Region" of the Carnegie Moscow Center Vita Spivak in his study “The Great Chinese Deforestation. What Really Threatens the Siberian Forest,” published on the center’s website. Vita Spivak notes that the behavior of Chinese business depends on the rules adopted in a particular country. And Russia in this sense is very different, for example, from its main competitor in the Chinese market - New Zealand. Russia remains the leading exporter of timber to China, but maintaining its leading position is not so easy, although transporting timber to China from Russia is closer and cheaper than from other countries that export timber and wood products. Thus, after a rather sharp increase in duties on the export of unprocessed round timber from Russia, the volume of timber trade with China began to fall - from $2.7 billion in 2007 (the year the new duties were introduced) to $1.9 billion in 2009. Russian supplies were quickly replaced by New Zealand.

In an interview Radio Liberty Vita Spivak explains where, in her opinion, truly serious problems arise, and where they are at least exaggerated.

For some reason, the accusations fall on the heads of Chinese entrepreneurs, and not on local administrations

– For me, talk that the Chinese want to cut down the entire Siberian and Far Eastern forests looks primarily like distortion and an emotional perception of the situation, which is far from completely consistent with reality. Yes, China has an interest in Russia's forest reserves, but the scale of the disaster is not as serious as it is portrayed on the Internet. Even many of those environmental activists who seem to be advocating for a good cause sometimes slightly exaggerate the scale of the “catastrophe.” And most importantly, for some reason the accusations fall on the heads of Chinese entrepreneurs, and not on local administrations, which do not always do enough to control the activities of both Chinese and Russian businesses in the woodworking industry - so that all this is within the bounds of reason, in within the framework of proper environmental management.

– Another typical idea in Russia is that the Chinese export Russian timber, and then sell it to Russia in the form of furniture and other wooden products. How does it correspond to reality?

– Yes, in principle, this is a completely correct idea. Because the main volume of Russian exports to China, if we are talking about the timber industry, is lightly processed wood. All this is supplied to China, where a large amount of furniture is produced, which goes not only to the Russian market. China is the largest furniture manufacturer in the world and they have a very large domestic market. The Chinese, in general, are becoming an increasingly wealthy nation and are consuming more and more quality products, including for their homes. Therefore, in principle, this idea is generally correct. But again, who is to blame here is something everyone decides for themselves.

- As you write in your study, 2007 was very important for the export and import of Russian timber from Russia to China, when duties on the export of unprocessed timber were sharply increased. How did the Chinese respond then? Reduced imports?

“Then a very interesting situation emerged: high duties were introduced on the export of round timber in the hope that foreign investors would go to Russia and begin building an industry that would engage in deep wood processing. But this did not happen for a number of reasons. Indeed, at some point, somewhere from 2007 to 2009, the export of round timber, which had previously been the main one to China, decreased, and what is significant is that this gap that had formed was very quickly filled by New Zealand. I say this so that it is clear that competition for the Chinese consumer in the wood market is very high. But, in principle, the Chinese are interested in Russian forest resources, that’s a fact. And they took advantage of the situation and approached this issue very practically; they began to transfer their primary production to the territory of the Russian Federation. That is, open sawmills and produce easily processed wood. Not round timber, but sawn wood, which was just as successfully exported to China for a much lower duty, about 5 percent.

"Chinese sawmill" in the Tomsk region

– When you conducted your research, did you have the opportunity to find out something about the – let’s call it that way – the “corruption component”? Could it not be, for example, that unprocessed timber is exported, and customs officers charge the same duty for sawn timber and also take bribes for this?

Even relict varieties of wood are exported, which cannot be exported, but you can buy a permit

– I only know that even relict varieties of wood are exported, which, in theory, cannot be exported, and yet a permit for such export can be purchased in Russia. This is the first. And secondly, they allow the export of wood, the origin of which is not always known. That is, it is possible that the so-called black loggers are cutting down forest in unregistered areas, where, perhaps, it is impossible from an environmental point of view to engage in logging. This is illegal, it is not controlled in any way, however, it is possible to “whitewash” such a forest on the border between Russia and China. In this case, Chinese business, no matter how sad it may sound, simply takes advantage of what the Russian environment provides - both from an administrative point of view and from a business point of view. They simply use every avenue to gain profit. Despite the fact that in New Zealand, for example, which very actively exports round timber, there are no such cases of corruption on the part of the Chinese or any barbaric destruction of forests. Because forest production there is licensed at the state level and is very tightly controlled. Therefore, Chinese business there adheres to the local rules of the game.

– You said that environmentalists in some cases exaggerate the scale of problems, but still they have the opportunity to somehow influence the situation?

By 2020, the Chinese authorities are going to completely ban commercial logging in China.

- Sometimes it works. There was a project in Primorye for the construction of a timber processing plant, in which the Chinese invested a fairly large amount of money, we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. But it turned out, when the plant was almost completed, that it did not meet environmental requirements. There are simply not enough reserves of wood around that can, from an environmental point of view, be wisely cut down and used for processing. And also this project interfered with the normal functioning of the river, which was nearby, and environmentalists sounded the alarm. They fought for five years, and in the end, because of this public outcry, it was decided to stop the project, and Chinese investors even pulled out of this project. But what is noteworthy is that this project was very actively supported by local authorities, Russian, and was even included in the federal target program for the development of Primorsky Krai. Despite the fact that it clearly blatantly contradicted all the environmental requirements that are usually imposed on this kind of project.

– You have already mentioned New Zealand as Russia’s main competitor in this timber market. Are there any other competitors, big players in this market, regarding the import of timber to China?

– First of all, this is the USA, from where, however, it is not round timber or lightly processed wood that is exported, but products of deep wood processing - cellulose and other products that have gone through various stages of processing. What is happening there is exactly what the Russian authorities advocated so strongly for in 2007, who wanted to export a more complex product to the international market. But so far this has not happened. And so, perhaps, we can call the main competitors New Zealand and the USA. Also, a lot of wood is exported from Africa, but it is a different type of wood. Mainly the so-called rosewood, very expensive and valuable, which simply does not exist in Russia.

– Does China itself have timber reserves, does it use them? After all, probably in the first stages of reforms, few people thought about the environment, all efforts were devoted to development, increasing the volume of the economy, and now the country is paying for it.

– Yes, this is a very popular, common opinion, including in Russia, people believe that the Chinese destroyed their forest reserves and took over Russian Siberia. But in general, this is also not entirely true, because, indeed, during the Chinese “economic miracle”, intensive industrialization, a lot of nature suffered. This can still be seen in Beijing today. If you drive there towards Tianjin, the air is completely unbearable. Naturally, a lot of forest suffered, a lot of forest was cut down, a lot of forest simply died. But now the priority of the Chinese authorities is to restore the environmental situation literally from scratch. Therefore, very serious attention and very strong control by the authorities are given to reforestation work. In principle, now in China, forests are restored per year almost twice as much as in Russia. Which I think is significant. Plus, commercial logging is very seriously limited, and by 2020, the Chinese authorities, as far as I know, are going to ban commercial logging altogether. Although now it still exists inside China, the forest is still cut down for commercial purposes. Therefore, this is a hysterical idea, it is more likely to sow panic, rather than to somehow constructively understand the problem,” says Vita Spivak, an expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center and a specialist on China.

Historian and anthropologist, coordinator of the Mongolian and Inner Asian Studies program at the University of Cambridge in the UK Sayana Namsaraeva notes that the situation where the Russian authorities allow a predatory attitude towards nature, and Chinese business takes advantage of this, is characteristic not only of the timber industry. The low standard of living of the population in Siberia and the Far Eastern regions of Russia, especially in villages, also plays a role.

– Predatory attitude towards nature, which was observed in China at one time, when the Chinese poor went en masse to Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, and other remote places and dug out all the valuable roots from the ground, and then sold it in the markets of big cities or to buyers of raw materials for use in medicine, in pharmacological agents, the market for dietary supplements is now very actively developing, and this attitude has now spread to the border areas of Siberia and the Far East. Especially after the visa regime with China became stricter. It’s not the Chinese who walk across the steppe or taiga and collect all this. The Chinese are simply creating economic conditions when the entire local population, against the backdrop of growing poverty, rushed into the forests. There are several types of herbs, almost Red Book plants, which have become very actively collected in recent years. Prices per kilogram of raw materials range from 200 to 300 rubles, and accordingly, a family, in order to get their children to school or survive until the next pension payment, goes to the steppe, to the forest and collects, for example, wild celery. Baikal skullcap is now in great demand. It turned out that in Chinese medicine, Baikal skullcap is one of the five main plants used. And it turned out that in the territory of Siberia and the Far East there are practically all the medicinal herbs needed for so-called Chinese medicine.

There is an expression that we remember from our school days: “We cannot wait for favors from nature; it is our task to take them.” And we take, take and take...

And again, the point is not that these are Chinese. Anyone could have taken their place. But conditions are simply created when it is beneficial for the population to do this. And the same goes for logging. Because it’s not the Chinese who work in logging and forestry enterprises, but local residents. China is a huge market; a whole logistics network has already been established, where everything is transported across the border on timber trucks and sold. Therefore, the Chinese themselves may have some workers at their sawmills, but in the taiga, those who collect these herbs and roots are, of course, local residents. Naturally, they understand that this harms nature. Journalists and ecologists prefer to talk about global and regional changes. Of course this is correct. But when, for example, you go to a small Siberian village and you see that this river has dried up, this stream has dried up, all the trees have been cut down here, two sawmills have been opened here, everything is being taken out here, then you can see the scale of the damage to nature. It seems to me that the mentality that the forest, natural flora, fauna are renewable resources has greatly influenced our mentality. There is an expression that we remember from our school days: “We cannot wait for favors from nature; it is our task to take them.” And we take, take and take.

China has almost completely banned logging of its forests. They used to have massive deforestation in Khingan in Inner Mongolia, in Heilongjiang Province, but this has now been stopped. And the instructions are given: bring all timber from abroad. One of the implicit goals of the huge political and economic project “One Belt, One Road” is precisely to build an infrastructure through which it would be possible to import all these resources from the border areas of other countries to China. They said that Siberia was turning into such a “white Africa”, this has already largely come true.

– And yet, can we blame the Chinese primarily for what is happening?

– We remember the situation with the mass protest of citizens of the Zakamensky district against the lease of huge tracts of land to a Chinese company. There the protesters were arrested and they tried to classify everything under political headings. But in fact, the Chinese looked there and said: okay, if it doesn’t work out in this area, we will go to another area, where the population is not so active and militant, and does not mobilize so quickly. In Buryatia, 2 million cubic meters of wood are cut down legally, and approximately one and a half million cubic meters are cut down illegally. That is, the official figures need to be increased almost one and a half to two times in order to show the real picture of deforestation. The leaders in Russia in deforestation are the Irkutsk region, Altai region, Tomsk region and so on... Chinese interests are present there, but the Chinese themselves cannot be blamed for the fact that they are to blame for predatory deforestation. China is simply the closest market where all this can be sold for good money. For example, how do these same Chinese intermediaries make money? One cubic meter of first-class wood sawn wood can cost $40, and when intermediaries resell it to China, it already costs about $500 a cubic meter. Of course, any businessman - both Chinese and non-Chinese - will seize on such figures. In Buryatia, the local government is trying to somehow regulate logging; in my opinion, they are even talking about opening a timber exchange, about opening deep processing enterprises, in order to at least sell for higher prices. But again, the point is that we need investors, we need technology. And the Forest Code, which was adopted in 2006, has a lot of complaints against it. Because he actually destroyed the State Forestry Service, handing it over to local authorities and private entrepreneurs who rent these plots. And even if there is a local forestry enterprise, this also opens up a large field for corruption schemes. Because, for example, forest taxation may overestimate the reserves of forest plantations and timber. After which, for example, the volumes of permissible logging are determined incorrectly. There is also such a thing as “through-cutting” of forest plantations. And here there is a huge field for various corruption schemes. And of course, here it is convenient to blame the Chinese for everything, although we cannot figure out our own farming with large areas. The forest has owners, there are, for example, huge tracts that belong to the Ministry of Defense, there are some forest tracts that belong to local enterprises, and there each owner does what he wants. Alexei Navalny on his website, citing Global Forrest Watch and the World Wildlife Fund, said that Buryatia has lost about 12 percent of its forest fund since 2000. This is apparently a very exaggerated figure. But even if the losses were 7 percent, as other environmentalists say, this is still very, very high.

China acts as a consumer not only of timber. This also applies to stones, for example. Buryatia, Siberia is a huge supplier of jade, there are also very large corruption schemes and shadow business. Vladivostok, the Far Eastern regions, especially coastal areas, where marine resources are rapaciously extracted, and all this is also brought to China,” says historian and anthropologist, specialist at the University of Cambridge Sayana Namsaraeva.

Sergey Savchuk, for RIA Novosti

Just a week or two ago, the Russian-speaking World Wide Web was simply bursting under the pressure of the righteous anger of fighters for everything good against everything bad. The latter mercilessly nailed and denounced “this regime” and “this country”, which completely, completely sold the forest of Siberia to the Chinese. Any network expert quickly proved that there were practically no forests beyond the Urals, everything had been sold, and the Chinese had taken everything away. The postulate was also very actively promoted that in China itself, logging is prohibited: they say, look, they take care of their forests, but ours is taken out in caravans. Let's try to understand this sensational topic.

As usual, let's start with history.

Historically, Russia is quite rich in forests. Trade in this “green gold” has been going on for a very long time; the first documentary mentions date back to the time of Tsar Ivan IV, better known as the Terrible. Neither the Russian autocrats nor the builders of the world's first communist power disdained to sell timber.

There are traditionally a lot of forests in Russia. At the beginning of the 1980s, the total forest reserves for the RSFSR amounted to 72.49 billion cubic meters, including:
. Northwestern region: 7.6 billion;
. Ural region: 2.9 billion;
. West Siberian region: 8.7 billion;
. East Siberian region: 27.43 billion;
. Far Eastern region: 21.4 billion.

Three decades later, in 2015, closer to us, the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues reported the following figures:
. total timber reserves in Russia: 81.5 billion cubic meters;
. annual growth: 993.8 million cubic meters;
. suitable for felling: more than 42 billion cubic meters.

As we see, even if the figures announced in the State Duma are divided by standard bureaucratic optimism, we still have an increase in forest reserves in general. In order not to be accused of bias, let’s say that in the same 2015, the relevant UN committee estimated the volume of Russian forest reserves at 83 billion cubic meters.

Now let's figure out how much forest is being cut down and how close we are to the promised catastrophe.

At the turn of 1988-1989, the USSR annually cut down about two and a half million hectares of forest, harvesting about 400 million cubic meters of wood. In 1989, the Soviet Union exported:
. 20.5 million cubic meters of commercial timber (6.7% of total production);
. 8.2 million cubic meters of lumber (8%);
. 0.4 million cubic meters of plywood (18.1%).

In total, the Union supplied products from this sector to 67 (!) countries. The main buyers were Japan, China, countries of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. At that time, the USSR ranked fifth in the world in terms of timber exports, behind the USA, Canada, Sweden and Finland. The weakest point of this state business was that round timber and lumber were supplied abroad, while in the top four, up to 60% were occupied by pulp and paper industry products.

Note in the margins. It should be noted here that in 1990 the Exportles company reported that more than 70% of the forest growing in the taiga zone is “overmature”, that is, old trees unsuitable for industrial use. A similar phenomenon occurs in situations where forest cutting is carried out in insufficient quantities without taking into account the specifics and age of forest plantations.

What figures do we have for the corresponding indicators?

Modern Russia, like its Soviet predecessor, places the main emphasis in logging on coniferous trees. According to the results of 2017, conifers are 2.6 times larger than hardwoods in terms of harvesting volume. In general, this sector showed a decline in production in 2017. Only the harvesting of deciduous wood grew slightly. Let us note, however, that such a slight increase has been observed for five years in a row.

Exports also decreased. For example, in 2017, 1.1% less coniferous timber went abroad than a year earlier. The export of fuel wood also fell steadily: in 2015 - by 7%, in 2016 - by 4%, in total, 14.7 million cubic meters of low-grade fuel wood were exported from Russia in 2017.

Russia cuts, harvests and exports significantly less timber than the Soviet Union. In parallel with this, our production of related materials is growing. For example, the production of furniture plywood in Russia has the following dynamics:
. 2012: 3.13 million cubic meters (exports 1.63);
. 2013: 3.27 million (exports 1.77);
. 2014: 3.49 million (exports 1.99);
. 2015: 3.56 million (exports 2.2);
. 2016: 3.65 million (exports 2.55).

The total export volume of lumber has increased; in 2012 this figure was 4.8 million tons; in 2017 it was already 12 million. Pellet production volumes are also growing. Over the past year, about 1.4 million tons of such fuel briquettes were produced in Russia.

As for the export of timber specifically to China, in 2016 the PRC imported 22 million cubic meters of timber from Russia, which amounted to 19% for the Russian market. Unscrupulous citizens brought up this figure by spreading horror stories that Russia has become the main supplier of timber to China. It is not true. China is the largest buyer of Russian timber, yes, but most of the timber in the PRC is supplied (suddenly) by the United States. The volumes of supplies to China in terms of monetary equivalent are as follows:
. USA: $7.6 billion;
. Russia: $4.5 billion;
. Canada: $4 billion.

It turns out that countries are fighting to the death with Russia for sales volumes to China, which among citizens of ambiguous patriotic orientation are usually used as examples of ideal subsoil and land use. And this despite the fact that Russia, according to a UN FAO report, has a forest area of 809 million hectares, Canada - 310 million, the USA - 304 million. It’s a paradox, but with almost three times the volume, we cut on a par with the developed countries of the West.

In China itself, deforestation is also not prohibited. Last year alone, the People's Republic of China independently produced just under 100 million cubic meters.

In Russia, specifically to combat illegal logging and sale of timber, the EGAIS system was introduced - the Unified State Automated Information System for recording timber and transactions with it. With its help, literally every cut tree is tracked all the way from the logging site to the border or processing plant. The results were not long in coming. Over the past two years alone, the number of detected offenses and initiated criminal cases related to illegal timber trafficking has increased sixfold.

…For today’s report to be objective, it is necessary to mention real, and not fictitious, problems of forestry in Russia.

The main one is that our forestry industry is consistently unprofitable. In global practice, a universal indicator of forest management efficiency is used - the volume of wood removed per hectare. And, alas, according to it the country is far from world leaders, inferior to Germany (4.9), Finland (2.3) and even the notorious China (1.4). For us, this figure is a sad 0.2.

One cannot help but remember that the timber industry complex (LPC) occupies a negligible place in the structure of state industry, being “squeezed out” to the margins of government attention and interests by the problems of oil, gas, gold and other minerals extraction. The industry is experiencing permanent underfunding, which leads to its extremely low profitability. The volume of payments to the country's budget per hectare of forest is just over 20 rubles.

To summarize briefly.

The situation with deforestation is returning to normal year after year. Maybe not as fast as we would like, but still. Is there illegal logging in Transbaikalia and Siberia? For sure. But it is not the Chinese who are involved in it, but our compatriots, who are carrying out the illegal and predatory destruction of the forest. That is, all the money received from this criminal business ends up in black cash with regional poachers.

The main problem of preserving and increasing the forest fund is not deforestation, but annual fires, which in most cases arise due to human negligence and boorish attitude towards nature. According to official statistics from the UN and the World Wildlife Fund, about two million hectares of forest burn in Russia every year. Up to 600 million hectares are outside fire protection zones. Last year alone, 4.5 million hectares of forest were damaged by fire in Russia.

If we translate this into annual supplies to China, this is equal to 22 years of continuous exports.

Russia has been selling timber to China since time immemorial. It was floated to its southern neighbor along numerous rivers, transported on carts, and in Soviet times they even began to use road transport. But it was not possible to establish regular supplies of timber and lumber, and even more so of more deeply processed products, for example, paper, by rail on a truly significant scale.

And this is even despite the emergence of such arteries as the Chinese Eastern Railway, the Trans-Siberian Railway, and then the BAM. China has never been, and even today has not become, the main buyer of “Russian timber”. We have long chosen Finland for this role. However, according to Rosstat data. In terms of roundwood purchases, the Chinese have already become leaders.

Harvesting and export of round timber in Russia. Source: Rosstat

However, the information background around a number of generally insignificant projects and decisions on cooperation between Russia and China in the forestry industry almost immediately became negative. Social networks are literally filled with messages about “cutting down Siberian forests” and “echelons of round timber prepared for shipment to the Celestial Empire.”

In Buryatia and Transbaikalia, “greens” and citizens in solidarity with them regularly hold rallies, concerned about the fate of the “Russian forest”. And at the same time with the forest - and sacred Baikal. And few people noticed that all this happened in conditions when China very significantly increased the volume of purchases of wood products, as well as unprocessed timber from the United States.

Yes, precisely in the USA, where, unlike Russia, the scale of deforestation has not been decreasing at all in recent years. At the same time, in China itself, contrary to numerous statements about a complete ban on deforestation, this industry is not only developing, but growing at an accelerated pace.

As a result, the conclusion literally suggests itself that the problem of “Chinese lumberjacks” is not just largely far-fetched. Apparently, it was inspired by those who do not benefit from the expansion of economic ties between the two countries in any area. And it doesn’t matter anymore that reality refutes fake news over and over again, especially since there are actually more and more “bad forests” in Russia.

And not only in Siberia and around Lake Baikal. But this does not always happen only because it is barbarically cut down. Either the Chinese, or local Chinese mercenaries. Strange as it may seem, but among the reasons for the degradation of many forests there is clearly insufficient volumes of cuttings carried out for the purpose of cleaning and protection from various kinds of pests.

However, we must not forget that China also buys timber from a number of other countries, and almost regular interruptions in supplies from Russia are generally not critical for it. The interruptions themselves are connected, as usual, with our internal Russian problems.

Moreover, not even official statistics, but data from independent research centers, for example, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), indicate truly amazing facts.

Even taking into account illegal logging in most regions, where, according to a number of media reports, forests are being cut “uncontrollably” for China, the volume of industrial logging does not even reach the minimum required scale.

The scale required to maintain forests in a condition that is commonly called among experts “permissible for deforestation, in which the ecological well-being of the territory will not be damaged.” And which, by the way, subsequently makes it possible to effectively develop the forestry industry again.

For example, in Buryatia, according to estimates by the same WWF, which practically coincides with Rosstat data, on average, it is possible, and in fact necessary, to annually cut down 10 million cubic meters (in 2017 - 10.5 million). However, no more than 27% of this volume is cut down in the republic every year (the average for the last ten years is 23%). For example, last year only 2.6 million cubic meters were cut down.

The situation is approximately the same with information about millions of cubic meters that go to China for next to nothing. We won’t even argue about “pricelessness”: after all, whoever wants to work at a loss cannot be prohibited from doing so. It is more important that tax and customs duties be fully consistent with export volumes.

So, are exports of unprocessed wood to China increasing? As you can see from the Rosstat graph below, they are growing slightly, but after such a significant decline that there is still no talk of even reaching the level of 2011.

In fact, statistics show that, starting around 2008, almost synchronously with the global financial crisis, supplies to China began to grow not of round timber, but of lumber. Let's not forget the fact that it was in 2008 that the Russian government sharply (up to 25 percent) increased customs duties on the export of round timber from Siberia, making them practically prohibitive.

Despite the fact that after Russia joined the WTO (in 2012), duties had to be reduced from 25 to 15 percent, the barrier remained almost insurmountable: the country introduced strict quotas. Since that time, timber can be legally exported from our country mainly in the form of lumber: boards and timber. Moreover, the industry has acquired a control system similar to that used in the alcoholic beverage industry, when a labeled unit of product is tracked all the way to the retail counter.

It is clear why at the same time in Transbaikalia, the Irkutsk region and Buryatia, as well as in neighboring regions, although not on such a scale, their own processing began to rapidly develop. Both on the basis of timber industry enterprises that managed to survive since Soviet times, and due to the emergence of many small and medium-sized farms with their own sawmills. All this together led to a decrease in the total volumes of Russian timber exports to China.

However, with the development of local processing, purchases of boards and lumber immediately began to increase, which, as we see, is confirmed by statistics.

Two recent devaluations of the ruble have pushed Chinese partners to change their business strategy. Instead of trying to settle in the “Russian forest” with their own teams of lumberjacks, or, moreover, trying to get into woodworking themselves in one way or another, they decided to take the path of investing in Russian production.

And it’s better directly, buying shares in enterprises or turning them into Russian branches of Chinese companies. So far, it must be admitted, this strategy has not worked very well. The main reason for the difficulties in attracting investment remains the Russian bureaucracy, both at the top and at the local level, where the procedure for registering cutting areas for lease is delayed so much that accruing interest on loans sometimes discourages even the Chinese from continuing the business.

But there is another reason that obviously scares off the Chinese, scared half to death by the anti-corruption practices of the Beijing authorities. We are talking about a purely Russian tradition of working not thanks to, but in spite of. And contrary to the law as well.

The Chinese, like the Siberians themselves, are fully aware that Russian foresters, who actually don’t seem to officially exist in our country today, have turned from “masters of the taiga” into sort of “gods of the forest.”

Forest officials are almost entirely mired in corruption. The selfless, of course, practice of allocating more plots than allotted in the documents has long become the norm. In this regard, official logging statistics do not reflect the real scale of harvesting.

And most likely, exports too, although crossing the Russian-Chinese border with a significant “overweight” is still not at all easy. And yet, as lumberjacks say, if a hundred cubic meters grow on one hectare, this does not mean at all that three hundred or even four hundred cannot be cut down on it.

Judging only by the volume of sales of timber and lumber, it becomes clear that in the regions bordering China, much more forests are cut down than is reported. In addition, the Russian “rules of the game” in this area, starting with the notorious Forest Code, are such that today, in fact, there is no one to answer for the barbaric use of forests. The country's full-fledged forestry industry seems to exist only on paper.

The Republican Forestry Agency of Buryatia, commenting on the hype around the “Chinese expansion”, noted that they are much more concerned about the practice of modern logging itself. After the introduction of strict rules and quotas, it became common for timber obtained quite legally to be exported legally too. But no one can even imagine how it was cut down and taken away.

Increasingly, the cultivation of plots is carried out with gross violations of forest management rules, or rather, without rules at all. Clear cutting down, right down to young trees, no longer surprises many people, let alone frightens them. The plots are not cleared after felling, which prevents the growth of new trees, and the forest does not recover. And the count in such a cutting is, alas, not by hundreds of cubic meters, but by tens of thousands.

In Russia today there is no effective forest protection; in fact, no, even minimal, measures have been taken to combat forest fires. And even more so for their prevention. For everything, as has been the case for many years, the Ministry of Emergency Situations takes the rap.

Is it any wonder that forests in Russia, and primarily in the taiga zone, are degrading faster than they can even be cut down? And this is not done by guests from the Middle Kingdom.

“One of the main Russian fears of the Chinese is that they want to cut down our entire Siberian forest. In the last few months, almost everyone has written about this - from activist bloggers to the largest tabloids. This topic is already being discussed in a raised voice on the Internet This is not the first year that residents of the Irkutsk region and Krasnoyarsk Territory have been writing petitions in the thousands against the “capture” of the Siberian taiga by the Chinese.”

In an interview with Radio Liberty, Vita Spivak explains where, in her opinion, truly serious problems arise, and where they are at least exaggerated.

For some reason, the accusations fall on the heads of Chinese entrepreneurs, and not on local administrations

– Another typical idea in Russia is that the Chinese export Russian timber, and then sell it to Russia in the form of furniture and other wooden products. How does it correspond to reality?

– As you write in your study, 2007 was very important for the export and import of Russian timber from Russia to China, when duties on the export of unprocessed timber were sharply increased. How did the Chinese respond then? Reduced imports?

"Chinese sawmill" in the Tomsk region

– When you conducted your research, did you have the opportunity to find out something about the – let’s call it that – “corruption component”? Could it not be, for example, that unprocessed timber is exported, and customs officers charge the same duty for sawn timber and also take bribes for this?

Even relict varieties of wood are exported, which cannot be exported, but you can buy a permit

– You said that environmentalists in some cases exaggerate the scale of problems, but still they have the opportunity to somehow influence the situation?

By 2020, the Chinese authorities are going to completely ban commercial logging in China.

– You have already mentioned New Zealand as Russia’s main competitor in this timber market. Are there any other competitors, big players in this market, regarding the import of timber to China?

There is an expression that we remember from our school days: “We cannot wait for favors from nature; it is our task to take them.” And we take, take and take...

– And yet, can we blame the Chinese primarily for what is happening?

In terms of forest volume, only Brazil can compete with Russia, which is catching up with us in terms of territory. But at the same time, forest is the most inefficiently used resource in our country. What do we do with wood? In essence, we simply sell round timber abroad. Moreover, the budget receives huge sums less from the sale of this, because most of it is smuggling.

Today there is active deforestation in Siberia, and not only Russian companies are involved in this matter. The fact is that Siberian forests have long been sold to the Chinese. Millions of hectares are leased for logging. Therefore, when buying Chinese notebooks, pencils and other wood products, Russians can be said to be returning the forest to their homeland. But the homeland has gained nothing from this forest in terms of budget revenues, workload of production and workers. The trouble is that the Chinese take away the round timber, paying only once and only to one person. In recent years, there has been growing concern in the Russian blogosphere about the deforestation of Siberian forests. Citizens are sounding the alarm that this is happening completely uncontrolled by the state and on an absolutely immense scale.

“Shocked! One million hectares of Siberian forest were sold to the Chinese! They are taking our wealth to the ground…” blogger Marina is horrified.

“This is also news to me! Yes, in our Chita region, the forest has been cut down and exported by the Chinese since 1991. If previously, according to contracts, they had the right to export only “gorelik” - standing on the vine after fires, now they are transporting everything that is possible and impossible, they are crazy from impunity. Since not only did they organize the arson, but they cut down everything for this shop. Primorye and the Far East were cut down even during the Soviet Union - the most valuable species: oaks, pines, cedars, elms, ash trees... My parents live in the East, in that parts where the forest stands like a wall, or rather stood. I come home and don’t recognize my native place... they cut it down and continue...", writes user Ofigenia on one of the Tomsk forums .

“Okay, you have 250 kilometers to the border there, and here in the Tomsk region? And even a third of the country, this forest is traveling on freight trains... and nothing! No violations were noticed! Ugh! The same Chinese shot those responsible for this...,” notes the USSR

“But I’m really scared... the forests are burning, they’re being cut down illegally, and then they’re selling them legally to everyone in such quantities that soon we’ll be unable to breathe,” notes evgesh-ka

In fact, the situation is such that the residents of the border Far Eastern settlements themselves are not averse to selling the timber, and they explain their participation in the black market for the sale of round timber by the lack of work. It turns out that instead of building a wood processing plant, with the aim of further supplying it to China legally. In order to provide jobs for residents of remote settlements, certain individuals, so to speak, businessmen, having agreed with local authorities, cut down a resource of national importance and sell it in the form of round timber, often bypassing customs points. And the Chinese are ready to pay 40 dollars for a cubic meter of this forest, immediately and in cash. An unsightly situation, which obviously lacks control not from local authorities, but control at the federal level.

Despite the fact that the focus is most often on the deforestation of Siberian forests (which is probably due to fears of the development of the lands of the Far East by the Chinese), black loggers work in Altai, and even in Karelia, which is called the “lungs of Europe”, thanks to why European conservationists are actively keeping an eye on this northern forest. Let's try to figure out why officials from the Federal Forestry Agency (Rosleskhoz) turn a blind eye to such huge thefts, which over two decades have acquired the proportions of a national disaster?

“Unfortunately, several years ago, powers for forest control were transferred to the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and Rosleskhoz only monitors compliance with these powers by the constituent entities,” answered a question from Pravda.Ru. public figure andformer deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor Oleg Mitvol, - And unfortunately, we see that this system does not work, because huge quantities of timber are exported to the North-West, to Finland, and then we buy products from this forest, and what is even more scary, it is growing every year the amount of round timber leaving towards China. These are Siberia and the Far East. And, unfortunately, due to the fact that no one says anything about this, in reality all this remains behind the scenes, and this is a multi-billion dollar business that is perfectly run by companies associated with local officials, and they feel at ease. They apparently have some kind of relationship with customs officers, because it’s impossible not to see these flows.”

As Mitvol noted, the state, and in particular the country’s President Vladimir Putin, “have long declared the entry into force of laws that would make the export of round timber unprofitable, and would make only the export of forest products profitable,” but these laws have not yet been adopted. “We remember that the president held meetings several times on the illegal removal of timber. But things are still there. Unfortunately, apparently, those people who are responsible for this matter today are absolutely unable to cope and do not want to cope,” concludes the ex-deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor , “The federal government doesn’t even really know what’s going on. I haven’t heard that Rosleskhoz is effectively combating the failure of subjects to fulfill their powers and, as a result, round timber exporters are left to their own devices.”

And what comes out of this? According to an investigation by American environmentalists, the results of which became known this fall, up to 80 percent of the wood cut down in Russia is sold illegally. Far Eastern wood is successfully exported illegally to China, and from there it travels to the USA, Europe and Japan. Further, goods are produced from this tree, which are supplied to the Russian market and sold at a huge price, including delivery, wood processing, and so on. Moreover, the budget of the Russian Federation does not receive a penny from these 80 percent of Russian forests. And no one is actually solving the problem. Pravda.Ru decided to find out why the Russian authorities overlook the theft of timber resources, whereas in conditions of a budget deficit, when the authorities are trying to plug all the holes through which money leaks, income from processing and legal sale of timber could partly improve the situation?

As Oleg Mitvol said, the black market for round timber could most effectively be turned into a legal business with the help of laws that stimulate the economic development of Russian timber processing. How feasible this is in the context of a budget deficit is difficult to say at the level of ideas, but until laws regulating this issue appear, the timber mafia will trade in the timber market. Isn't Russia losing more money due to the illegal trade in timber that is sent abroad?

“This is a multi-billion dollar business, and not all of it goes through customs posts and, of course, as a result, when there is a black business with huge money, we can talk about the timber mafia,” said Mitvol, emphasizing that there are means to combat this market, “In -firstly, it is necessary to force the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to fulfill their powers, this should be done by Rosleskhoz. Secondly, laws should be in place that would actually prohibit the export of round timber. But, apparently, someone benefits from the situation when billions of dollars remain in their pockets, and the forest "They cut down mercilessly. By the way, this is not the case in China; they plant more than they cut down. The state controls everything, that's all."

Pravda.Ru talked about state control over Russian forests with Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Natural Resources and Environmental Management Vladimir Kashin, who spoke about a bill aimed at solving the problem of black loggers :

“There are three great problems - fires, pest control, disease control and, of course, black loggers and unscrupulous business. All these three big problems have given rise to the fourth - the lack of reproduction, the destruction of nurseries for the production of forest crops. In the last two or three years We worked a lot, held the Presidium of the State Council in Buryatia, through the instructions of the President we received the need and support for the creation of specialized state structures to combat pests, diseases, and restore forest protection. We have already adopted in the second and third readings the law on the circulation of round wood. And we ourselves did it turnover on a wide range of all trade codes, including the export component. This strict accounting now starts from logging in the forest, transportation is carried out by a special act, declaration of transactions, violation of this comprehensive accounting leads to confiscation of equipment, confiscation of forest, fines increase hundreds of times , from 500 thousand and above. Therefore, this law is very systemic, tough, and it will be necessary to comply with it,” Kashin is sure. “We already have regions where business operates conscientiously in this regard. We need to restore the productivity of forest areas, we need to restore economic profitability."

At the same time, assessing the current situation in the timber market, the official agreed that the Forest Code, adopted in 2006, “opened a lot of loopholes, forest protection was simplified, and the number of foresters was reduced significantly.” Thus, today, on average in Russia, only one forester looks after 55 thousand hectares of forest. At the same time, as the head of the department said, even those who legally lease forest areas for felling do not engage in forest restoration, citing natural processes - they say it will grow on its own.

“Of course, especially valuable species have been taken under special control. Literally, the law stipulates the need to brand each log: oak, beech, ash, and so on. Therefore, we hope that the law enforcement practice under this law and, in complex, all the questions that we are raising today to preserve natural diversity, including increasing the security network, including production rangers, will have a certain effect,” sums up Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Natural Resources and Environmental Management.

However, when asked by Pravda.Ru whether the draft law being prepared will stop the cutting down and export of round timber abroad, Vladimir Kashin answered negatively. According to him, round timber will go abroad, but at the same time, accounting will be established and the black logger will be eliminated. And a conscientious forest user will “at least provide sawlogs” when processing forests. In addition, the draft law establishes the responsibility of governors through the assessment of their activities. However, if negligent officials are punished for the removal of forest with the same ridiculous fines as mentioned above (let’s look at the numbers realistically - what is a 500 thousand ruble fine for companies that pay tens of millions for renting a million hectares of forest), then the document is quite You can hang a label “for show”, because the effectiveness of its work raises huge doubts today.